i7 965 Extreme Overclocking with TurboV?

[Mudhendriver 3]

Have a new rig that has CPU turboV tool that allows what appears to be a way to interface and control overclocking. I've attached a couple .jpg showing turboV in steady state on my system. When I'm going to use either FS9 or FSX I simply increase the CPU ratio to 28 and turboV indicates about 3.75Ghz...if I raise the ratio to anything higher, the system is unstable. Can I increase to 4.0Ghz from TurboV? If so, what other settings must I change in TurboV to get there?ThanksRich Perryi7 965 Extreme Quad Core6GB OCZ DDR 3 RAMNvidia GTX 285 (2GB GPU) tweaked with nHancer 2.5.1Raptor HD 10000rpmSB xi ExtremeDell 24"Windows Vista Ultimate 64

[Guest FlyingBits]

Google is your freind, do some searching on Overclocking with your hardware. You will need to increase voltage settings to get stable, to do that you will want better cooloing than just the stock heatsink and fan etc. You have very good harware for that but do some homwork first and you will get good results.Take Care,

[Mudhendriver 3]

Google is your freind, do some searching on Overclocking with your hardware. You will need to increase voltage settings to get stable, to do that you will want better cooloing than just the stock heatsink and fan etc. You have very good harware for that but do some homwork first and you will get good results.Take Care,

I've done some research and it seems there are differing opinions on the efficacy of turbov interface in overclocking...some say it's a great one stop shop others suggest that oc must take place via BIOS. Seems to me if I change the values in turbov, it should also affect the BIOS settings--with turbov there's no reboot required either. However, when I change a value in turbov and apply the profile, it will change back to default after reboot or power off. Further research indicates for the i7 965 not to exceed 1.35 on the voltage. My question is, what is the order in which tweaks are made? Do I increase BCLK above 134 then CPU voltage then ratio? Do I need to increase DDR RAM voltage above 1.5? What are the rules of thumb? If someone has a proven technique given similar system, I'd appreciate any input since my google research has yielded not a lot of data relative to turbov overclocks.Thanks

[TechguyMaxC 516]

TurboV will o/c your pc, but never by as much as dilligent hand-tuning.

[David Roch 1,980]

Further research indicates for the i7 965 not to exceed 1.35 on the voltage.

Wrong information.Mine is @ 4.00Ghz stable at 1.40.The maximum safe voltage for this chip is arround 1.45

[Alan_A 1,650]

You should be able to get to 4.0. On a similar rig, I'm stable at 4.0 with CPU voltage at 1.34375. Base clock is 133 with a 30 multiplier. QPI is 1.35 and DRAM voltage is 1.66. System specs below. I've followed NickN's guidance for motherboard settings - Speedstep disabled, turbo boost off, hyperthreading off, CPU spred spectrum disabled, C1E support disabled, Intel virtualization tech disabled, CPU TM function disabled, Intel C-state tech disabled, and load line calibration enabled. All of these are for the P6T motherboard - settings and terminology may vary on other boards. He outlined these settings in a thread on memory timing a while back - try searching on "memory timing" and "NickN." Getting the system tuned took a fair amount of trial and error - I had to bring the CPU voltage up after tightening memory timings, and if I go one step higher on CPU votage, everything falls apart. It's an art, and it goes without saying that YMMV...Hope this is helpful.Alan

[David Roch 1,980]

You should be able to get to 4.0. On a similar rig, I'm stable at 4.0 with CPU voltage at 1.34375. Base clock is 133 with a 30 multiplier. QPI is 1.35 and DRAM voltage is 1.66. System specs below. I've followed NickN's guidance for motherboard settings - Speedstep disabled, turbo boost off, hyperthreading off, CPU spred spectrum disabled, C1E support disabled, Intel virtualization tech disabled, CPU TM function disabled, Intel C-state tech disabled, and load line calibration enabled. All of these are for the P6T motherboard - settings and terminology may vary on other boards. He outlined these settings in a thread on memory timing a while back - try searching on "memory timing" and "NickN." Getting the system tuned took a fair amount of trial and error - I had to bring the CPU voltage up after tightening memory timings, and if I go one step higher on CPU votage, everything falls apart. It's an art, and it goes without saying that YMMV...Hope this is helpful.Alan

Hi Alan,Mystery of computers...Mine couldn't be stable below 1.3975 v.Is there any other changes you made in the BIOS?

[Guest UlfB]

Hi Alan,Mystery of computers...Mine couldn't be stable below 1.3975 v.Is there any other changes you made in the BIOS?

There seems to be big differences between the different production batches of the same processors. The quality seems to vary a lot.If I OC my i7 940 to 4GHz I need to raise the core voltage to 1.375V and QPI to 1.26250V. Temps running OCCT just below 80C.If I decrease the OC to 3.8GHz I only need a core voltage at 1.25625V and may run QPI at Auto for a stable system. Temps running OCCT below 70C.Other OCers have reached 4GHz with a lot less voltage.The same goes for the i7 920 (not D0 version). Some OCers could get to 4GHz without problems. Others could only reach 3.8GHz.

[Alan_A 1,650]

Hi Alan,Mystery of computers...Mine couldn't be stable below 1.3975 v.Is there any other changes you made in the BIOS?

No, that's the full list of BIOS changes. As UlfB said, there's a lot of variation.I sometimes wonder if we pay enough attention to the quality of the power coming in from the line. In my area, we've got ongoing problems with the power grid - frequent brownouts, blackouts during thunderstorms, etc. I run the power through a Tripp-Lite line conditioner, then through an APC UPS with brownout protection, so what gets into the computer has been cleaned up. But for all I know, the quality may still be inconsistent and that might be a limiting factor. I'm not enough of an electrical engineer (actually, I'm not any kind of electrical engineer), so I can't judge. It'd be interesting to hear about that from someone who's qualified.Alan

[David Roch 1,980]

There seems to be big differences between the different production batches of the same processors. The quality seems to vary a lot.

Right, that's why modern aircrafts don't use Intel based computers! :--))Just for the fun I've flashed the Bios yesterday for the latest one.The result is quite spectacular: Prime95 + OCCT + LinX stable @ 1.35 volts which was absolutly impossible with the previous one and some 8C less in full charge.

No, that's the full list of BIOS changes. As UlfB said, there's a lot of variation.I sometimes wonder if we pay enough attention to the quality of the power coming in from the line. In my area, we've got ongoing problems with the power grid - frequent brownouts, blackouts during thunderstorms, etc. I run the power through a Tripp-Lite line conditioner, then through an APC UPS with brownout protection, so what gets into the computer has been cleaned up. But for all I know, the quality may still be inconsistent and that might be a limiting factor. I'm not enough of an electrical engineer (actually, I'm not any kind of electrical engineer), so I can't judge. It'd be interesting to hear about that from someone who's qualified.Alan

Thanks for your answer Alan.BTW this is an interesting question.

[Alan_A 1,650]

You should be able to get to 4.0. On a similar rig, I'm stable at 4.0 with CPU voltage at 1.34375. Base clock is 133 with a 30 multiplier. QPI is 1.35 and DRAM voltage is 1.66. System specs below. I've followed NickN's guidance for motherboard settings - Speedstep disabled, turbo boost off, hyperthreading off, CPU spred spectrum disabled, C1E support disabled, Intel virtualization tech disabled, CPU TM function disabled, Intel C-state tech disabled, and load line calibration enabled. All of these are for the P6T motherboard - settings and terminology may vary on other boards. He outlined these settings in a thread on memory timing a while back - try searching on "memory timing" and "NickN." Getting the system tuned took a fair amount of trial and error - I had to bring the CPU voltage up after tightening memory timings, and if I go one step higher on CPU votage, everything falls apart. It's an art, and it goes without saying that YMMV...Hope this is helpful.Alan

Well, looks like I spoke too soon. Since the beginning of August I'd been running into black screen crashes that I thought were related to my video card temperatures. I took care of that by forcing the fan speed on the card, but still had the occasional crash. Then, the other night, for the first time, I loaded up both the A2A Cub and the Orbx FTX Australia scenery, with some ASA weather thrown in. Within 10 minutes I got a blackscreen crash, followed by a series of "overclock failed' messages. The BIOS wouldn't let me reboot 'til I changed back to default settings. After that, I restored the overclock, ran OCCT - and broke the 80C barrier within about three minutes. I've since traded back to a 3.875Ghz overclock (133x29, CPUv 1.3v, QPI Auto, DRAMv 1.64, all other settings unchanged). It's stable, doesn't cost me much if anything in FSX performance, and keeps the temperatures well within tolerance.As to what went wrong at 4.0, I think there are two possiblities - either ambient temperatures got higher (this is Washington, DC in the summer, and my 4.0 overclock was set up in winter), or the cooling on the CPU has gotten less effective. Or it's both in combination. Today, in cooler weather, I was able to run at 4.0 for about 40 minutes in OCCT before I broke 80C, so ambient temperature might be the issue.I'm not sure what to do next - I might try to get back to 4.0 at lower voltages, or I might keep things at 3.875 - again, at that setting, I can't see any performance difference in FSX, and I like the idea of having some margin for safety.Maybe I'll wind up running a summer overclock and a winter overclock.Wanted to share because to me it's more proof that, as they say, YMMV.Alan

[Bob Scott 7,716]

No, that's the full list of BIOS changes. As UlfB said, there's a lot of variation.I sometimes wonder if we pay enough attention to the quality of the power coming in from the line. In my area, we've got ongoing problems with the power grid - frequent brownouts, blackouts during thunderstorms, etc. I run the power through a Tripp-Lite line conditioner, then through an APC UPS with brownout protection, so what gets into the computer has been cleaned up. But for all I know, the quality may still be inconsistent and that might be a limiting factor. I'm not enough of an electrical engineer (actually, I'm not any kind of electrical engineer), so I can't judge. It'd be interesting to hear about that from someone who's qualified.Alan

Alan; You should be fine with the APC UPS...it's purpose is to watch the power line and it'll trip offline for voltage and frequency problems long before they become an issue for PC stability. The brownout protection circuit allows the UPS to raise the input voltage when line voltage drops down out of limits without having to trip into battery backup mode. APC is a reputable brand, and unless the UPS is malfunctioning, I wouldn't worry about that as a source of problems on the PC. All but the very cheapest ones have a pretty good self-test function that cycles periodically and/or when the UPS is powered up. One thing I would caution on, though, is use of the line conditioner in front of the UPS--it's generally better to plug the UPS straight into the wall without intervening power strips, surge protectors etc--all that is already built into the UPS anyway, and the UPS is designed to work with a direct connection to the house neutral/ground lines. In some cases, use of another protection device between the UPS and the house mains can void the system protection warranty that comes with the UPS.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

[Alan_A 1,650]

Alan; You should be fine with the APC UPS...it's purpose is to watch the power line and it'll trip offline for voltage and frequency problems long before they become an issue for PC stability. The brownout protection circuit allows the UPS to raise the input voltage when line voltage drops down out of limits without having to trip into battery backup mode. APC is a reputable brand, and unless the UPS is malfunctioning, I wouldn't worry about that as a source of problems on the PC. All but the very cheapest ones have a pretty good self-test function that cycles periodically and/or when the UPS is powered up. One thing I would caution on, though, is use of the line conditioner in front of the UPS--it's generally better to plug the UPS straight into the wall without intervening power strips, surge protectors etc--all that is already built into the UPS anyway, and the UPS is designed to work with a direct connection to the house neutral/ground lines. In some cases, use of another protection device between the UPS and the house mains can void the system protection warranty that comes with the UPS.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Thanks, Bob. I'll have to try swapping out the line conditioner. Question - would the line conditioner be effective if I placed it behind the UPS - that is, between the UPS and the computer? I'm reluctant to let it go since it's done a good job of cleaning up the current for me in two locations - one in Jersey City that was really dirty (the current, not the neighborhood) and my current one, where power quality is better but still a little squirrelly at times. Let me know what you think.Alan